Great Writers Talk About Writing

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"There is no rule on how to write. Sometimes it comes easily and perfectly: sometimes it's likedrilling rock and then blasting it out with charges."(Ernest Hemingway)

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"Writing is an adventure."(Winston Churchill)

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"There are no dull subjects. There are only dull writers."(H. L. Mencken)

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"Writing is just work--there's no secret. If you dictate or use a pen or type or write with your toes--it's still just work."(Sinclair Lewis)

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"Nothing you write, if you hope to be any good, will ever come out as you first hoped."(LillianHellman)

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"Don't try to perfect as you go along, just get to the end of the damn thing. Accept imperfections.Get it finished and then you can go back. If you try to polish every sentence there's a chance you'llnever get past the first chapter."(Iain Banks)

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"A young writer must cross many psychological barriers to acquire confidence . . . to produce goodwork--especially his first full-length book--and he cannot do this by staring at a piece of blankpaper, searching for the perfect sentence."(Paul Johnson)

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"Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go. . . . Writing is like driving atnight in the fog. You can only see as far as your headlights, but you can make the whole trip thatway. . . . Writing is a socially acceptable form of schizophrenia."(E. L. Doctorow)

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"Writing became such a process of discovery that I couldn't wait to get to work in the morning: Iwanted to know what I was going to say."(Sharon O'Brien)

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